Linkin Park 2010 Wrap Up

2010 has been a great year for me and my band.  Here are some 2010 year-end stats for the LP record books:

We released “A Thousand Suns”, which debuted at #1 in 15 countries.

The album debuted with an amazing contest called “Linkin Park Featuring You” on MySpace where fans were given pieces of our first single before it was released.  They remixed the tracks, and we picked a winner named NoBrain–and included his work on our album.

We got a chance to play in a number of places we’ve never visited before, including the U.A.E. and Israel.

At home in the U.S., our first single, “The Catalyst” was the first #1 debut in the history of the Billboard Rock Songs chart.

“The Catalyst” and “Waiting For The End” both went to #1 on the Alternative radio chart, bringing our career tally to ten #1 songs thus far.

LP won an EMA for “Best Live Act,” and we’re in the running for the upcoming People’s Choice Awards, Japan Gold Disc Awards and German Echo Awards.

We released 8-Bit Rebellion for iPod, iPod Touch, and iPad, which debuted at #1 on the iTunes music app chart.

“A Thousand Suns” went to #1 on Nielsen Soundscan’s Best Selling Rock album of 2010

Chester made an appearance in Saw 3D, which also saw a #1 debut at the box office

We held our first LP Underground Summits, in London and Sydney, which quickly became one of the most memorable experiences for LPU members who attended.

As the year comes to a close, we’ll be crossing 20 million Facebook fans (more than Starbucks, Disney, or McDonalds–but still catching up to Michael Jackson at 26MM!)

Following the earthquake in Haiti, the band organized Download To Donate (downloadtodonate.org) where supporters and fans of over a dozen bands could come to download tracks for free, and donate funds to support relief efforts in Haiti.  This effort is ongoing.

“A Thousand Suns” was a risky album–one that veered off a more predictable path into territory that definitely got fans and non-fans talking.  It’s been fun to see how perceptions and opinions have swelled and changed.  As we move into the next year, we’ll be looking forward to the next leg of the world tour, another single, another video, and whatever else comes next.  A huge “thank you” is due to everyone who has helped make 2010 a successful year for the band.  We appreciate you.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas 2010!

Merry Christmas everyone! This year my family and I are going to celebrate Christmas with my grandparents. We always change each year.

I'm excited to see what I will get this year, my brother and I always get many Christmas presents. I've wished for PlayStation Move, and I really hope I will get it. Otherwise I will buy it myself. I always get money because I don't now what to wish for.

This year I've bought all my gifts online. It's good because I don't have to stand in line with all the other stressed Christmas shoppers. I even got them wrap for a small fee.

The weather this year is perfect with a lot of snow, just as I've always wanted! However, it doesn't happen that often that it comes snow for Christmas.

I hope everyone will have a great Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Wishes

Mattias (24Xero)

Video Game Awards 2010

What happened at today’s Spike TV Video Game Awards? New game announcements, first look trailers (some with actual gameplay), release dates, and Neil Patrick Harris. Catch up on the most important news right here if you missed anything.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Bethesda Game Studios reveals the sequel to Oblivion, the role-playing game known as Skyrim, via short teaser. The game is also given a release date — November 11, 2011. [HD trailer]

Mass Effect 3

BioWare’s next shooter space opera is formally announced as a battle for Earth and given a release window of Holiday 2011. [HD trailer]

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

Naughty Dog brings back Nathan Drake for another adventure, this one set in the desert and beyond. The PlayStation 3 game also gets a release date of November 1, 2011. [HD trailer]

SSX: Deadly Descents

EA unveils its next SSX, in which video game snowboarders “explore the story of a team who seek to be the first to descend the faces of the most treacherous mountain ranges on the planet.” [HD trailer]

Resistance 3

We get our first peek at gameplay in Resistance 3 and a release date for the PS3 game, September 6, 2011. [HD trailer]

inSane

Director Guillermo del Toro teams up with THQ and Volition Inc for inSane, a horror game that’s quite far off. The teaser trailer definitely looks like a game that won’t hit until 2013. [HD trailer]

Prototype 2

Developer Radical Entertainment officially unveils the next Prototype game. It won’t go head to head with Infamous again, because Prototype 2 won’t be released until 2012. [HD trailer]

Kratos Comes To Mortal Kombat

The God of War joins the fray in a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Kratos wins! [HD trailer]

Batman Arkham City’s New Bad Guy

Dr. Hugo Strange knows Batman’s biggest secret in Arkham City, which delivers a cool new trailer. [HD trailer]

Forza Motorsport 4

The Xbox 360 racing series doesn’t have much to show, with a mostly-live action teaser trailer formally announcing its existence. [HD trailer]

Portal 2

Valve releases a new Portal 2 trailer. It looks like a Pixar movie. [HD trailer]

Thor: The Video Game

Hey, there’s a Thor video game! [HD trailer]

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception uncovered!

No need to scan that headline twice and make sure you read it right – UNCHARTED 3 is real. This morning, Entertainment Weekly revealed the next chapter in the critically-acclaimed, top-selling UNCHARTED franchise – UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception.

UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception continues to evolve all of the core principles we laid out for the UNCHARTED franchise, most important of which is creating an unmatched and extremely compelling interactive cinematic experience. In addition to having a compelling story and authentic characters that all of our fans can relate to as key facets to creating this type of experience, we push ourselves and the capability of the PlayStation hardware through constantly refined gameplay mechanics and technology innovation. Our dedication to creating the best interactive cinematic experience can be seen in our last two games – UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves. We’re especially honored and humbled that both titles have been so successful, selling nearly 8 million units combined and earning more industry awards and accolades than we can keep track of. We’ve set the bar very high for us to outdo the past successes of our previous UNCHARTED games. We’re looking forward to taking on this challenge to top ourselves and create a truly unforgettable interactive cinematic experience that everyone can enjoy.

So, if you’re wondering what UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception has in store for you, we wanted to share some early details.

UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception features the return of famed fortune hunter Nathan Drake and follows him through a gripping, action-packed storyline that will take you all over the world. In his search for the fabled “Atlantis of the Sands,” Nathan Drake and longtime friend and mentor Victor Sullivan set off on a daring trek into the heart of the Arabian Desert. But when terrible secrets of this lost city are uncovered, their journey becomes a desperate bid for survival that will force Drake to confront his deepest fears.

Throughout UNCHARTED 3, you’ll be taken to spectacular new locations around the globe that will showcase all of the work we’ve taken on to take acclaimed physics, particle and visual effects to a new level.

Competitive and co-op multiplayer will return as a key ingredient to the UNCHARTED 3 package, where all of the new features we have planned will combine with our signature single-player cinematic gameplay to create a unique action-adventure multiplayer experience that can only be found in the UNCHARTED universe.

Oh, and there’s one more thing – UNCHARTED 3: Drake’s Deception fully supports high-resolution Stereoscopic 3D.

We’re looking forward to exploring it all with you in the months to come. Be sure to hit up your local newsstand tomorrow and pick up a copy of the December 17 issue of Entertainment Weekly – you’ll find a ton of additional details on UNCHARTED 3 and the new art shown above in glorious, full color print. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween! [Update!]

Happy Halloween everyone! I like this holiday very much even though we don't celebrate on October 31 here in Sweden. Our holiday, All Saints Day, is next week. However, I like to celebrate Halloween myself by watching horror movies and play scary video games. And I'm going to do the same thing next week. It's two weeks of "horror" for me.

What I like about Halloween and autumn is the warm, cozy, happy and mystical feelings I get during this period. It's a special atmosphere just like during Christmas. And all these feelings get stronger when I watch a really scary movie.

Today, I'm going to watch the remake of A Nightmare On Elm Street on Blu-ray. Another movie I'm going to see is Monsters, it seems like a good scary movie. I'm going to play Left 4 Dead 2 because it's a great game that's very scary and gives me adrenaline. I don't have many scary video games to PlayStation 3. I think Resident Evil 5 is the only one, and I'm tired of that game. I have just bought BioShock 2 to PS3, and it's a little scary but maybe the most important thing is that it has a great atmosphere.

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't felt like writing. However, I have posted on Twitter everyday. It's fast and easy. I have three Linkin Park reviews that I want to publish, but I haven't had the "strength" to do it. I hope they will come up soon. They're going to be published under the September and October period. I will "cheat" a little.

I hope that everyone has a great Halloween, because I certainly have.

Sony at GamesCom 2010

Sony unveiled a few unannounced games this year at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, and showcased some of their upcoming titles like Killzone 3 and Motorstorm: Apocalypse in full stererscopic 3D.

Cramped into the eWerk theatre in the Mullheim district of Cologne, a massive crowd of games journalists eagerly waited to see what Sony would show off at this year's GamesCom. Here are some of the highlights of their press conference.

• A LittleBigPlanet 2 trailer highlighted some of the ways players will be able to not only create their own levels in the upcoming sequel, but design their own fully-fledged games. This includes utilizing connectible stages, so player-designed games can go beyond the “Go from A to B” formula of the previous title.

• The company announced new bundles for their PS3 system, including Move packages. You can read more about that here.

• Each person attending the conference was given (err, rented) a pair of 3D glasses for one presentation, which highlighted many of the upcoming and currently supported 3D games Sony has to offer. By far the most impressive was Motorstorm: Apocalypse, due to the speed and visceral nature of the racing series. Especially awesome was the amount of destruction going on in each track; like Split/Second, the world is literally coming apart at the seams while players race through it--very cool.

• Greg Goodrich of EA once again took the stage to show off more Medal of Honor, only this time he called upon the skills of Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, who wrote a song for the game. The stage the pair showed off was called Gunfighters, and took place inside a helicopter equipped with enough firepower to take out a small middle eastern village, which is exactly what Shinoda did. Many enemies equipped with RPGs didn't make the mission a cakewalk, but they eventually made it through. It seems the devs have put a bit more polish on the game since the last time we saw it, as the framerate was much less choppy this time around.

• In what was easily the shortest gameplay segment of the press conference, the crowd was shown an extremely brief Killzone 3 MP segment, though aside from watching players score points by getting kills, it was hard to take away much from the video, other than making us want to get our hands on the game even more.

• Insomniac Games' Ted Price took the stage to reveal what one of the newer branches of the studio was been up to, which turned out to be Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One. The four-player co-op game relies on teamwork between players just as New Super Mario Bros. Wii did, though the teamwork aspect becomes more complex in the three-dimensional arena. A boss fight towards the end of the demo showed how teamwork is integral in All 4 One, as players needed to launch their buddies into the air to activate switches which would cause huge structures to collapse onto the towering boss creature.

• Ted Price didn't leave the stage without one last bit of news: Resistance 3 is under development. He debuted a live-action trailer which showed survivors making their way towards New York on a train. The grim scenery on the way included countless massacred corpses and homes ransacked by the Chimera forces. Upon entering a tunnel, the survivors came under attack by a ferocious group of Chimera, and the trailer faded to black under a “Resistance 3” logo. Exciting stuff, but show us some gameplay!

Game Developers Conference 2010 (PS3 news)

Sony's biggest announcement at this years Game Developers Conference 2010, was their motion controller, now with an official name. It's called "Move" and I think that's a great name, but "Arc" would have been more unique. I'm going to write a summary of what happen during Sony's press event.

Below are some of the highlights from GDC 2010.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony's Worldwide studios was excited to share the official unveiling of the PS motion controller and its games. They'll later show some of the games available during the device's Fall launch window. People will be able to try them out after the presentation. The type of games they can create with it are amazingly diverse, it's Precise, Responsive and Ultra sensory. PlayStation Move is announced as the official title of the device.

Peter Dille, senior VP of marketing and PSN discusses the PS3's momentum this year, with the price reduction and game like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves giving the system a big push. The system experienced a 50% growth in software sales in 2009 (versus 2008), but Sony isn't content with that. Dille describes MAG and Heavy Rain as innovative products that continue to push the PlayStation brand. He also thank the press for giving Heavy Rain a chance and some glowing reviews. Other examples trotted out to prove Sony's success: MLB 2K10 and a "little" product called God of War III. He says that Gran Turismo 5 will ship this year, and it will be worth the wait.On to PlayStation Move: "It's fast, precise, and accurate." It also seems to be sporting two separate pieces, including a nunchuck-like component to be held in your alternate hand. The "starter" kit will start under $100, that's one PlayStation Eye, a game, and the PlayStation Move. Advantages of the technology? Accuracy and precision, which translate to a more exciting challenge for the gamer, Dille says. A fighting game is being shown, another game translates movements with both devices to a bow-and-arrow game, and another clip shows two players going at it in table tennis. Ah, here's the obligatory golf game. Sword and shield action game is shown. Another montage reveals a lightgun-esque shooter, a dancing game and what appears to be some first-person horror game, where the Move functions as a flashlight.Next up is Scott Rohde, VP of Worldwide Studios. He was there to demonstrate the precision of the PlayStation Move, both "fast and subtle" motions. Sports Champions is shown, which has a sub-game called Gladiator Duel. Both are working titles. It's an arena fighting game. He moves his right hand to swing a mace, and can do attacks at various heights. The movements appear quite responsive in the game, even if the fighting appears a little rote and simplistic. He swings both his arms upwards, which initiates a jumping attack. Next up is Sports Champions: Table Tennis and it looks a lot like Sony's take on Wii Sports. A game called Move Party is shown. The game looks like a silly party game, right now, you could see someone wield a razor and cut a cartoon character's wool hair. They showed a LittleBigPlanet demo, there's new material in the game that will interact with the Move. You point at the screen and maneuver the material to create a bridge or a ramp. It seems that if an object is made of the material, you can pick it up and move it around on the screen. Motion Fighters (working titles) features "next-gen graphics and speed," apparently. The Eye detects where you are in 3D space, and each controller mimics your arms' motions. Dodging, punching and ... dirty moves. These motions are pretty violent, he's locking someone's neck under his arm and wailing on the poor man's head with the other arm.

There're an additional accessory for the Move called the "PlayStation Move Navigation Controller". You can play through SOCOM 4 if you have this thing. You can take cover and aim quite efficiently with the Move. Aim seems to benefit the most, obviously. The tech was integrated into the game with very little overhead, apparently.
Peter Dille returned to the stage and said that virtually every third-party publisher will support the Move, including Activision, Capcom, WB Games, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Ubisoft, EA, Disney, Konami, Sega, Crave and Tecmo Koei. In addition, 36 publishers and third-party developers will support it, and according to a press release, in fiscal year 2010, SCE Worldwide Studios will also release more than 20 games that are either dedicated to or supported with the PlayStation Move platform.

Happy New Year 2010!

A new year is here! I can't believe it's 2010, I feel blessed that I've experienced a decade in the 21st century and many more years to come. I think these ten years have gone in a good speed, not fast and not too slow. I've gone from being a child, a teenager to an adult that feels very immature and childish. However, it has been a fun rid, I've experienced a lot, and I have grown inside, even though I need a bit more growing to do.

Traditionally I fired of some Fireworks, they were beautiful, I had bought a big "Cake" that fired 50 shots and a few "Air Bombs". I shot some during the evening, like I always do, and I saved the biggest Firework for midnight. I went up a big hill right after midnight, when all the fireworks were, I could see the whole city from there and all the Fireworks. Other years I'm going to buy more different Fireworks, I like those with lots of power, the "Cake" that I bought set off a car alarm. It was fun today, like every New Years Eve.

Ever since I was 5 years old, I've fired off Fireworks, of course with a parent and my brother. I was afraid of them at first, but that went away when I got older. We bought every year Firecrackers, some were small and some bigger, we also got Fireworks from our neighbor, he had a friend who sold Fireworks. Me and my brother also liked the "crackling green balls" and an other one who bounced, which came between my legs. We always celebrated New Years Eve at Grandma and Grandpa, the neighborhood where they lived always had people who fired a lot of Fireworks, so it was fun being there.

What I remember from these ten years is that I've gotten many more things that make me happy. First of all, and one of the biggest, is that I became a Linkin Park fan. I was twelve years old and the year was 2000. I had heard a song on the TV from a band called Linkin Park, but I didn't know who they were and the genre they were playing wasn't the one I used to listen to. One day when I was in the shower I started humming on a song, but I didn't know which one it was. I went up to my computer and searched for it on the Internet, I somehow figured out the title for the song: "One Step Closer" by Linkin Park. I downloaded the song from "Napster" and listen to it, but I thought it was pretty short and thought that only half the song was downloaded. I turned on the TV, for some reason, and to my surprise the music video for "One Step Closer" started, and I saw that the song was the right length.

I think that was the sign that I should be a Linkin Park fan, I later downloaded "Pushing Me Away" and thought that Chester sounded like one of the Backstreet Boys. Every time I was in the record store, I looked at their album and saw the band picture at the back and though that they were a very cool band. I saved my money to buy their album, "Hybrid Theory", and when I finally bought the album and played it at home, and hundreds more after that, I was blessed by their music and a Linkin Park fan for life.

I've also played a lot of video games, both on the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3. I've had many awesome video game experiences with a lot of positive feelings involved. I remember the "Grand Theft Auto" games, "Metal Gear Solid" games, "TimeSplitters" games, "Resistance" games, "Modern Warfare" games, "Killzone 2", "BioShock", "Batman: Arkham Asylum" and many many more video games. And I began to have video games as an interest. I've always loved video games ever since I was a child, but when I grew older it became a passion.

There has been a lot of movies too, both on DVD, Blu-ray, Cinema and downloads. Thanks to the Internet I've watched many more movies than I used to. I remember the "Matrix" movies, "Lord Of The Ring" trilogy, "28 Days Later" + "28 Weeks Later", "Batman Begins" + "The Dark Knight", "Avatar" and many many more movies. Movies also became an interest and a passion to me.

I can write much more, but I have to end it now. It's gonna be fun to see what the next ten years have to offer. Some things I look forward to being: play new video games, watch new movies, listen to new music from Linkin Park, experience new technology, for example, PlayStation 4, being creative in new and same ways and feel even more happiness and get a lot of positive feelings and experiences. Welcome 2010!